Creative music culture through vernacular songs for education by different generations of Hong Kong composer-educators

Hong Kong has a uniquely creative music culture which has been cultivated and developed by Hong Kong composers-educators throughout the past few decades. This chapter examines the development of vernacular songs for education through different generations of Hong Kong composers, which contributes to a creative music culture. The research is based on analysis of selected choral compositions. It traces the stylistic changes of Cantonese songs for education by different generations of Hong Kong composers, identify the creative elements in both music and speech from the selected works, and identify the cultural significance of the selected works through the use of the Cantonese dialect, the content of the lyrics, the musical styles, and the creative elements of the selected works. It is concluded that lyrics of vernacular songs for education by local composers correspond closely to the Cantonese tones. Different types of lyrics for education are represented: moral values, encouragement, Hong Kong characters, and just for fun. Both forms of lyrical writing, formal Mandarin and vernacular Cantonese, are used in the Cantonese songs. While formal writing is used for both serious and fun songs, vernacular writing seems to be used exclusively for fun songs. Copyright © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.